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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2002
Volume 2, Issue 8
Santa Monica Daily Press A newspaper with issues
Affordable housing project planned for Main Street
Down below!
BY ANDREW H. FIXMER Daily Press Staff Writer
A major affordable housing project is planned for Main Street that will cost $11 million for 44 apartments. Community Corp. of Santa Monica wants to build the complex on the southwest corner of Pacific and Main streets. The five-building complex could house about 185 people in 22 three-bedroom units, 16 two-bedroom units and three units of four-bedrooms and one-bedrooms that would rent for $500 to $1,300 a month. Currently, the 27,045-square-foot site proposed for the project is vacant and used to have apartments on it. The five
buildings in the complex, which would be connected by upper-floor walkways, are gathered around a series of internal courtyards. The entire project will keep 50 percent of the land for open space. While the complex would not be Community Corp.’s largest project in Santa Monica, it will be the first time the developer of affordable housing is proposing a project on Ocean Park lots intended for commercial use. The largest building Community Corp. currently manages is a 62-unit complex in an eastside neighborhood, but the largest affordable housing development the See HOUSING, page 5
Game inventor fights the city BY ANDREW H. FIXMER Daily Press Staff Writer
Carolyn Sackariason/Daily Press
Santa Monica Police Harbor Patrol officer Ryan Penrod takes a flying leap off the pier Tuesday. Harbor patrol officers routinely make the 20-foot drop into icy cold water as part of ongoing training.
A game inventor accused of illegally operating a business on the Third Street Promenade without the proper permits may be heading to trial today. Stewart Lamle will appear in Santa Monica Superior Court today in his ongoing fight against 16 misdemeanor citations that each carry a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Six of those citations are for illegally possessing a milk crate. Lamle has argued when it comes to selling his invented game on the Promenade, the city is accusing him of breaking laws that don’t exist. And because six of the 15 citations the police department issued last year for the illegal possession of a milk crate were given to Lamle, he believes the city has targeted him for prosecution.
“We want to know about these other nine people,” said Paul Mills, Lamle’s attorney. “What were they doing to have the full weight of the Santa Monica City Attorney’s Office coming down on them?” he said. “Lamle represents one-third of the milk crate crime wave in Santa Monica.” However, Lamle and Mills say Deputy City Attorney Linda Mills, who is prosecuting the case, has neither produced the specific city code Lamle violated nor the reasons the city decided to prosecute the nine other people who were charged with illegally possessing a milk crate. Linda Mills was unavailable for comment Thursday. Superior Court Judge Bernard J. Kamins will rule today whether the city must present the evidence Lamle and his attorney have requested. He will also decide if a full jury trial should begin See LAMLE, page 5
Identity theft, Internet fraud top list of consumer complaints BY JENNIFER COLEMAN Associated Press Writer
SACRAMENTO — Identity theft and Internet fraud topped a list of consumer complaints, boosted by the rapid growth of technology, according to a survey of California district attorneys released Thursday. “Consumer fraud is a pox on our communities,” said state Sen. Jackie Speier, D-Daly City. Speier heads the Senate Select Committee on Government Oversight, which surveyed the district attorneys. The U.S. Office of Consumer Affairs estimates that consumer fraud costs Americans $100 billion annually, and much of that money is never recovered, Speier said. Identity theft topped the last list of consumer complaints that was compiled in 1995. New additions to this year’s list include immigration consultant fraud and
scams regarding health and diet products. Kathleen Hamilton, director of the state’s Department of Consumer Affairs, said the list illustrates the challenge of fighting new crimes, such as Internet fraud, and the familiar “snake oil salespersons” whose scams have been recycled for decades. “The movement of the consumer culture from mainstream to the mall to the modem has complicated the consumer marketplace and brought with it clear enforcement and education challenges,” Hamilton said. Consumer education is more important than ever, and so is an easier system for victims to report fraud, she said. One of the complaints consumers often report is “the extensive labyrinth that must be navigated” to report a crime, Hamilton said. Speier’s committee held a hearing Thursday to discuss whether the state needs additional laws to help district
attorneys prosecute consumer fraud. Other complaints on the list included phone services, auto repair and contractor fraud and negative option marketing, where the consumer is offered a free trial service, but later has to cancel the service to avoid a monthly charge. Identity theft is the fastest growing white-collar crime in the nation, said Steven Blackledge, a consumer advocate with the California Public Interest Research Group. The state needs to make it harder for criminals to steal personal information necessary to set up credit card accounts as someone else, and make it easier for victims to clear their record, he said. Blackledge said identity theft is related to financial privacy. See FRAUD, page 6